AdSense silently adds a 90-day time limit on AdSense referrals

By Jenstar on January 26, 2006, 10:45 am

A thread over at DigitalPoint points out that Google AdSense has quietly added a new term to all AdSense referrals generated by a publisher. They have now instituted a 90-day time limit on that referral, meaning a referred publisher must earn the $100 within the first 90 days, before the referring publisher is eligible to earn that $100 for a completed AdSense referral.

When generated the AdSense referral code, above the buttons shows:

When a publisher that signed up for AdSense through your referral earns their initial $100.00 and is eligible for payout, we’ll credit your account with $100.00. *

(Click thumbnail for full size).

Note the asterisk at the end. And at the bottom where the asterisk references:

* An AdSense referral is counted when a publisher, who has never previously enrolled in AdSense, creates an account and earns at least $100.00 within 90 days of sign-up. The referred publisher must be eligible for payment to qualify as a successful referral.

(Click for full size).

No one seems to recall that “within 90 days” clause added. And frankly, neither do I.

It is also worth noting that NONE of the AdSense support documents for AdSense referrals include this 90 days either.

In contrast, a conversion for AdSense is counted when a user you’ve referred to AdSense has signed up and earned $100 through the program.

Because not all referred publishers who sign up for AdSense will reach $100 in earnings, you may notice that the amount of sign-ups is higher than the amount of conversions. Depending on the success of your referrals, these statistics may even out over time.

But what is most telling is the fact that AdSense referrals page has a screen shot of the control panel screen – and there is no asterisk or mention of the 90 days.

And the AdSense Blog also used a screenshot of this page, which shows yet a different version of the wording, but no reference to the 90 days or an asterisk.

Something else I pondered is the “earns their initial $100.00 and is eligible for payout”. This could potentially be interpreted to mean that the 90 day window is actually closed much further than that, because a publisher is not eligable for payout until 30 days after the end of a month. So a publisher would need to earn that $100 during the first two months of the referral.

Hopefully AdSense will provide some clearer information about this new 90 day requirement for AdSense referrals.

Added: I have been asked about my personal thoughts on the change. On the one hand, I can fully appreciate AdSense not wanting to keep track and pay our referrals years after the initial referral was made. But on the other hand, I believe that 90 days is too short a time frame for that referral lead to expire. I think that if the change had been made initially to 180 days, there probably would not be the complaints as there are now with the 90 days, especially when you take into account the thirty days needed for earnings to be eligible for payout, as well as time it takes for new publishers to not only implement the code but also to do some testing to find out what kind of placement and style works best. 6 months is a good time frame for earning from that referral lead, but 3 months is far too short.

Yes, it’s that happy time of the month when Google pays its AdSense publishers. Log into the management console and check the “Payment History” link under the “My Account” tab and you should see your earnings for December. It’s like a delayed Christma…

That is very sly of Google – they should pay up fair and square – the webmasters out there are doing the work for them, they shouldn’t through barriers in their way.

My first referral didn’t put the code on his pages for two months, and unless his site is a major hit, that’s my lot I think. It took me the best part of a year to get my first cheque on AdSense (then I learnt what I was doing.) I wonder how many more new webmasters will be in that position.

A while back, you may have noticed that I added an AdSense referral button to my sidebar. It didn’t cost me anything more than some pixels. My site is featured in a for-pay eBook on Adsense, so I was hoping…

I’m not using any of the AdSense referrals yet and, with this 90 day thing, probably won’t. I’m in my third year with AdSense. My goal for the first year was simply to earn enough to pay for my server space, which was only a little over a hundred dollars. I more than made that goal, but it was well past 90 days that I made my first hundred. With my audience, the percentage who is going to be able to just jump in and start making money is not very high, so this program is just not going to be one for me to pursue, unless they change it.

First because 90 days is way too short for Adsense beginners to earn enough money to qualify
Second because the way used to inform us is ridiculous. Are they ashamed, do they think we are idiots or what?

Google AdSense Adds 90 Day Clause To Referral Program Without Notifying Publishers

Google seems to be becoming more evil everyday. Their corporate motto is supposed to be “do no evil”, but in the last few days they have modified their search engine for China and now they have been caught slipping a…

Great show and some hints, still looking for a sales and promotion person, weird request tonight if you heavy into politics and are connected to the political scene drop me a e-mail ceo@rawvoice.com Help the Geek out by taking five…

I don’t know about you, but in my opinion most of the latest Adsense “improvements” have caused just harm for publishers.. smart pricing –> 90 days referal limit etc.. Here at Finland there’s almost zero publishers who could earn more than $100 for their first three months in Adsense, so it feels like they fooled us to keep their banners on our sites for several months…

Adsense Changes Referral Rules Without Notification — Now 90 Day Time Limit on Referrals

Jensense has reported that Google has changed their referral rules to only pay out if a referral earns their $100 within a 90 day period.
Initially, the referrals page read: “When a publisher signs up for Adsense through your referral and earns…

Like most companies Google knows no bounds when it comes to greed. There supposed corporate motto of “do no evil” has taken a huge hit with their censored search engine for China. This is on top of censorship of searches in cou